“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses… let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” — Hebrews 12:1, NRSVUE
On September 12, 1992, the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from Kennedy Space Center with seven astronauts on board.1 One of them was Dr. Mae Jemison, a physician, engineer, former Peace Corps medical officer, and, with this mission, the first Black woman to travel into space. Jemison brought something special with her: a photograph of Bessie Coleman.2
Coleman was born in Texas in 1892, one of thirteen children in a Black and Cherokee family. She dreamed of flying at a time when aviation was so new that getting a plane off the ground took real courage. But American flight schools refused to teach her. She was Black. She was a woman. Either reason alone would have closed most doors. Together, they made her dream almost impossible. Almost.
Coleman learned French and went to France, where she enrolled in flight school. In 1921, she earned an international pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, becoming the first Black woman and the first Native American woman to do so. She came back to the United States and became a well-known barnstorming pilot, performing loops, dives, and other stunts that drew huge crowds in the early days of aviation. She also knew that being the first would not matter much if no one could follow her.
Coleman dreamed of opening a flight school where Black pilots could train without facing the barriers she had encountered. She refused to perform at venues that segregated their audiences. Flying gave her a platform, and she used it to make the sky a little wider for people coming behind her.
She never got the chance to open the school. In 1926, while preparing for an air show in Jacksonville, Florida, Coleman was in a practice flight when the airplane lost control and she fell. She was thirty-four.3 People would not travel into space for another thirty-five years.
Bessie Coleman never saw a rocket launch. She never saw astronauts walk on the moon or NASA choose its first Black astronauts. She could not have imagined all the technology inside Endeavour, or even that one day a Black woman would be part of its crew. But sixty-six years after Coleman died, Mae Jemison took her photograph into orbit.
As a pilot, I find that quite beautiful. Every time I get into a cockpit, I am surrounded by people I will never meet. Aviation was built over generations through courage and knowledge. Someone found out what happens when a wing goes past its critical angle of attack. Someone learned how spatial disorientation can trick a pilot into thinking level flight is a turn. Someone figured out how to fly through weather when the ground disappears under the clouds. Someone made a mistake, sometimes with tragic results, and the rest of us learned from it.
We fly because others learned how before us. The checklist I use is something I inherited. So are the instruments I use, the procedures I follow, the weather reports I rely on, and the air traffic controller’s voice in my headset. Every flight is full of the presence of people who made it possible.
Maybe our lives work the same way. The Christian tradition talks about the communion of saints, an image I find even more beautiful when we see it beyond stained-glass windows. It suggests that the lines between generations are more open than we think. We are joined by the lives that came before us.
Other traditions see this through ancestors. In many Indigenous and African spiritualities, the dead stay part of the community because identity is shaped by relationships. We inherit names, stories, wounds, wisdom, responsibilities, and possibilities. Sometimes we inherit dreams that someone else did not live long enough to see come true.
Mae Jemison did not know about Bessie Coleman when she was a young girl dreaming of space. She learned Coleman’s story later and wished she had known it growing up. Jemison later wrote: “I think she was there with me all the time.”
Coleman’s courage became part of the world. Once courage is out there, we cannot always know where it will go. A woman crosses an ocean because her country will not teach her to fly. She earns a license. She performs for crowds. She insists that Black children should be able to look up at the sky and see themselves there. Then she dies.
But the possibility she created did not die with her. Other pilots followed her path. Decades went by. A young Black girl in Chicago watched Star Trek and decided she wanted to be an astronaut. Eventually, a rocket launched from Florida with her on board. Somewhere inside was a photograph. Bessie Coleman never made it to space. But Mae Jemison brought her there.
I wonder who you are carrying into places they never saw. Maybe a grandmother who had fewer opportunities than you. A teacher who believed in you before you believed in yourself. An ancestor who crossed a border, survived a war, faced racism, raised children in poverty, fought for rights they never got to enjoy, or simply loved someone so well that the love kept going.
We almost never reach any place alone. Maybe one day, someone will carry a part of us into a world we cannot imagine yet.
We will never know where all our courage ends up. But that does not mean it stops moving forward.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Whose courage, sacrifice, or imagination made possibilities available to you that they themselves never got to experience?
What unfinished dream from someone who came before you might now be entrusted to your life?
What possibility are you creating today for someone you may never meet?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer For Those Who Carried Us Here
Holy One, We give thanks for those whose courage became our inheritance. For ancestors who endured, teachers who opened doors, dreamers who imagined worlds they did not live to see. Their lives travel with us. May we carry their gifts with tenderness and their unfinished hopes with courage. And may something we do with this one life open a little more sky for someone coming after us. Amen.
Spiritual Practice: Carry Someone With You
Think of someone whose life helped make your own possible. This could be someone you knew well, an ancestor whose story you’ve heard, a teacher, an activist, an artist, a spiritual guide, or even someone like Bessie Coleman, whose courage made the world bigger for you, even if you never met them.
Find a photograph if you have one. If not, write their name on a small piece of paper. Keep it with you for a day. Place it in your pocket, wallet, bag, or somewhere you might find it by surprise. When you see it, remind yourself that what you’re doing didn’t start only with you.
During the day, do something to honor them. Take a risk they would appreciate, offer someone an opportunity, teach something you learned from them, share their story, or keep going with a piece of work they cared about.
At the end of the day, think about what you might be continuing that they weren’t able to finish.
We usually think of inheritance as something passed down to us from the past. But maybe inheritance also asks us to look forward.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
September 17, 2026, 7-8:45pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman for an online session on practicing eidetics as a part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” monthly series. Eidetic Imagery is a powerful tool for pastors, denominational leaders, coaches, and spiritual directors working with others, and for individuals seeking deeper integration and healing in their own lives. Jackie is a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, and has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
October 6, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again to launch a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for an 18-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. REGISTER for the first session HERE!
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
November 10, 7-8:30pm ET - I’ll be joined by theologian, writer, and professor Dr. Debra Rienstra for a special ONLINE conversation on Refugia Faith. In ecology, refugia are small places where life survives amid disruption, pockets of resilience from which life can eventually regenerate and spread. Debra invites us to consider what this might mean spiritually in an age of climate instability, political turmoil, institutional decline, and profound uncertainty. What if our congregations, communities, relationships, and even our own lives could become refugia, places where courage, compassion, beauty, wisdom, and possibility are protected and cultivated for whatever comes next? I hope you’ll join us for this timely and deeply hopeful conversation. REGISTRATION COMING SOON!
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
My friend Kathy Coffey Solberg has just released Reweaving What Matters: Practical Tools for Workplace Transformation, a timely guide for leaders and communities navigating change. Using weaving as both metaphor and method, Kathy helps readers identify patterns that are no longer working and build healthier, more intentional ways forward. It’s especially useful for congregations, nonprofits, and other organizations facing deep transition. You can learn more and order the book here.
The Convergence Music Project has scheduled the fall conference on October 7-10, 2026 in Louisville, Kentucky. We will sing new community songs created specifically for this time in our history and explore together how the songs we sing in worship (and beyond) can empower and encourage us as we live out the biblical call to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.” Learn more here.
Become more comfortable talking to others about creation care and more confident acting on solutions. Join Blessed Tomorrow + Faith Training on 9/26. Register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/fBrgjj76QemIfWeSP2bJRQ
My dear friend, Rev. Shawna Bowman has just launched a new podcast with musician Jennifer Knapp called “My Wise Friend Podcast.” They talk about it this way: “You might know Jennifer from her years as a touring musician and songwriter, weaving stories and songs together across the country. You might know Shawna from their work as an artist, speaker, and community leader exploring the intersection of spirituality, justice, and creativity. While our daily work looks different, we share a deep love for real talk, deep questions, and finding wisdom in unexpected places.” I am so excited about this! I hope you will check it out and support them. https://www.patreon.com/cw/mywisefriendpodcast
Every Monday, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/sts-47/
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/celebrating-centennial-bessie-coleman
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/first-american-women-flight
So beautiful, dear Cameron. Thank you. I'm thinking of my grandfather William Gross who came to this country penniless with only a third grade education, and provided an example to me of courage in the face of long odds and dangers beyond any I've had to face that continues to fuel me. It was good to be reminded of Grampa Willy and all the others who did what they needed to do so I can be sitting here writing this note.
Cameron, you never cease to amaze me with your insight, wisdom, and wonderful way with words. You made of this simple story of acknowledgment a powerful life lesson. It feels very good to feel my mother and grandmother at my side today -- and to try to be worthy of their love and guidance. Thank you!